Doward Iron Mines

Overview

Iron workings in the woods above the Wye gorge on the Great Doward, at the northern edge of the Forest of Dean orefield. Cave-like openings, adits and spoil in private woodland, worked so long ago that by the 18th century local guidebooks had forgotten there had ever been mining here at all.

History

The Doward workings belong to the Forest of Dean iron tradition rather than to any industrial era. The earliest notice of them is Camden's, who recorded a giant skeleton found in a cave on Great Doward Hill — the place later called King Arthur's Hall, and evidently, in the view of the 19th-century Dean historian H. G. Nicholls, the entrance to an ancient iron mine. Nicholls grouped the Doward openings with the other primitive workings of the Dean, spacious caves rather than engineered mines, dug before machinery or gunpowder. A 1982 survey of Lords Wood and the neighbouring Devil's Ditch Wood by the Woolhope Club's archaeological section found extensive iron workings over a small area, with adits elsewhere in the wood, the south-east of Devil's Ditch Wood broken up by workings and spoil heaps and bounded on the north by a limestone quarry face. Records held by the Deputy Gaveller of the Forest of Dean showed two small mines with dates in the last quarter of the 19th century, plus two undated shafts on the edge of the complex — but nothing covering the main workings. The Wye tours and local histories of the 18th and 19th centuries describe the forge at New Weir, the quarries and the lime kilns, and say nothing of iron mining, which suggests the bulk of the working was already ancient by then. The only working within living memory when the survey was made was in 1917, when someone reopened one of the mines and sent off several truckloads of ore by rail.

Geology

Great Doward Hill is limestone with a capping of Drybrook Sandstone in places, on the north bank of the Wye where the Forest of Dean orefield crosses the river. The iron here occurs in the Carboniferous Limestone as irregular replacement bodies rather than as veins or seams, which is why the workings follow the ore as winding cave-like passages instead of regular levels.

Geological setting: Iron Replacement Deposits (well documented example)

Workings

The Dean-style workings are described as spacious caves, or as precipitous and irregular passages left where the ore and ochreous earth were taken out, followed for hundreds of yards with openings made to the surface as the ore dictated. On the Doward the same pattern survives as adits, irregular openings and spoil heaps scattered through the woodland, alongside the shallow quarries and scree workings of the limestone trade.

Closure

There is no closure date in any ordinary sense — the main working was over long before anyone recorded it. The last activity noted locally was the brief reopening of one mine in 1917 to send out ore by rail, at the same time the Ladypark stalactite cave across the river was worked in the same way.

What remains

Overgrown workings in private and Forestry-administered woodland on the Great Doward, recorded as cave-and-mine archaeology rather than as an industrial site. The complex is known locally as the Pancake Mines, and the surrounding hill carries the potholes, quarries and caves — King Arthur's Cave among them — that make the Doward better known for its caving and prehistory than for its iron.

Adits, irregular openings, spoil heaps, a limestone quarry face, and the local names — 'the old smithy', 'the old public' — of buildings that served the workings.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Camden recorded a giant skeleton found in a cave on Great Doward Hill, later called King Arthur's Hall, which Nicholls took to be the entrance to an ancient iron mine. (medium) ¹
• The ancient Dean iron workings, including those on the Doward, have the appearance of spacious caves or of irregular passages left by the removal of ore, followed for hundreds of yards with openings made to surface. (medium) ¹
• A 1982 survey found extensive iron workings over a small area of Lords Wood with further adits elsewhere, and the south-east of the neighbouring Devil's Ditch Wood broken up by iron workings and spoil heaps. (high) ²
• Forest of Dean Deputy Gaveller's records showed only two small mines here with dates in the last quarter of the 19th century, plus two undated shafts on the edge of the complex. (medium) ²
• The only working remembered locally was in 1917, when one of the mines was reopened and several truckloads of ore sent off by rail. (medium) ²

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Sources

1. (primary) Iron Making in the Olden Times, as instanced in the Ancient Mines, Forges and Furnaces of the Forest of Dean — H. G. Nicholls, 1866 (Project Gutenberg)
2. (secondary) “On the Doward”, Herefordshire Archaeological News 40 — Woolhope Club Archaeological Research Section, 1982

Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 25 August 2026